Special Chapter XVII - Invisible Attacks (part 2)

"Kheh… Facing me yourself? Don't get cocky just because you were able to push Elbrado by a mere inch!"

Merida launched more invisible wind attacks, but this time it was more powerful. The captain was able to dodge a few of the attacks thanks to his senses, but their speed is incredible. It grazed the captain slightly multiple times, and at the final attack, the captain just couldn't dodge.

BARR!!

An explosion suddenly occurred just a meter in front of Merida, capturing her completely off guard. She covered her face with both her arms, so the dust and pebbles didn't reach her face.

"Kuhh!! What, now??"

The witch complained loudly. Her vision was quite limited by the dust, and she can barely sense anything.

She waited until the dust cleared, but her opponent didn't. An arrow was shot at high speed towards her from behind the dust, and with only one eye, there's only so much reaction she can do.

"Kheh!!"

She moved her head as fast as she could, but the arrow was able to graze her right cheek. Merida turned her gaze back to the dissipating cloud of dust in front of her, and what's standing is not only the captain, but a muscular short haired woman.

"Ki-Kirene?"

The captain stared at her behind him with confusion, but Kirene replied with a laugh.

"I got the hint now, captain!"

Before leaving the large cave, Kirene asked the captain about some tips on how to use the magic enchantment. It turns out she was also quite interested in using it, that she had tried them out during the fight with the undead, but failed miserably.

The captain gave her some tips and hints on how to do it, but she still requires some practice. She ended up creating a chance for herself, and acted as if she followed the others away from the battlefield. When really, she went to the mountain of rocks and grabbed a giant rock using just her body.

She used magic enchantment, and was able to lift the giant rock. She threw the rock and they crash landed right in front of Merida.

She finally succeeded in using the body enchanting ability, but her aiming with the rock throwing might still need some work.

"That's... great!"

The captain laughed hearing that. Now, there is someone as strong as him fighting this heavily injured Rank 1 ranker.

Seeing that another annoying bug had appeared, Merida clicked her tongue loudly.

"Tch! So annoying!!!"

From her face, it's clear that both pressure and bloodlust was emitted. But both the captain and Kirene were not afraid at all.

This battle is going to get more serious from now on.

.

Meanwhile on the top, the battle is relentless.

Burning trees are everywhere, and giant craters were created everywhere at a really high rate. For every second, there's at least two craters that were made in this entire forest.

While battling, I noticed quite a lot of things about my techniques.

Apparently, fire bombs are way slower than fireballs, because it took quite the concentration to keep them in check so that the explosive it causes to be a lot bigger. But the hell with the giant explosion, I can't even hit this yellow bastard with my fastest fireballs!

His movement speed was somehow the same as mine, but his magical abilities are much quicker. If it was a close quarter combat, I might have the upper hand. But this is a life and death battle, and neither side is giving out.

Nobody is fighting fairly, and nobody wants to lose.

His movements aren't getting any slower. It's true what Gajah had told me, that he was able to travel like the lightning itself. He turned himself into the yellow lightning and moved like a teleportation. That ability itself was quite the headache for me, because he always pops up behind me.

His lightning attacks were quite painful. I got hit by his small chain of lightning twice already on the surface, and they are like getting stabbed with a poisonous knife. Not only did you get stabbed, but there is also the poison to sting your wound. 

It felt exactly the same as that. Believe me, I have been there.

"Hey, hey, hey!! Can't you move any faster!?"

Technically, I can, but that would sacrifice my energy, and that's the same as losing.

Wait.

I focused my entire magic energy on my legs. The rest of my body is now weren't enchanted with magic energy. Only my legs.

I started jumping around, and boy I feel fast.

Shocked by the sudden change in the speed, Prym's movements suddenly became predictable. He became more wary of me, that he forgot to move unpredictably. 

And I popped up just behind him, making him panic to the heavens.

SWUSH!!!

My sword sliced the air as he turned himself into lightning form and dashed towards the ground. Once he was at the ground, he turned his gaze at me and complained.

"Damn it, that was too fast!!"

"You did ask for it."

I leaped away again, using the same level of speed.

With this speed, I gained the ability to step in the air. Maybe because the pressure was too heavy thanks to the both of us, that even the air became hard as rock and can be stepped on freely.

I stopped using my fire magic completely and focused on movement speed. This here is truly the contest of speed.

But every time I got close to him, he always leaped away using his lightning mode. I need to figure out how to trap him somehow.

I started looking for any weaknesses in his movements. Surely his moves became dull after I enhanced my speed, but that doesn't mean I was able to hit him even after I upgraded my speed.

If this continues, I won't be able to hold out for long and may run out of stamina faster than him. Even when I have such a large magic pool, I don't have a King tier lightning magic like he does, which means my drain rate is most likely faster than him.

After all, focusing all magic to one spot can cause a heavy stress on that body part. So I casted healing magic over and over again on my leg, so it won't anyhow overheat. It does leave the other parts of my body vulnerable and unprotected, and I can get wounded badly if I receive a hit on my body.

But in a contest of speed, that didn't matter.

Leap after leap, I'm starting to get bored of this. He always dodged every time I got close, but he can't hit me either.

Until now.

He didn't lightning away. I was already quite close to him, and he is within my sword range. His expression turned into panic, and I became even more hasty.

He couldn't lightning away, for some reason, which I assume is because of a lack of magic energy.

I swung my sword at him, enchanted heavily with magic energy and ready to slice him into oblivion.

All of the sudden, his expression turned into a grin.

"Gotcha."

The entire skies began to grow dark in less than a blink, but at the next blink the skies became even brighter than before.

It was too late for me to dodge…

And a yellow thunder strike just rained from above, straight towards my unprotected body.